Various multifactor authentication regimes have been developed to control access to mobile computing devices. These regimes commonly use an alphanumeric password as one of the factors to authenticate a potential user of a mobile computing device. More recently, certain pattern based authentication regimes have been developed whereby a pattern is traced onto a Graphical User interface (GUI) of a mobile computing device. ANDROIDLOCK™, that is part of the Cydia application installer, is one example of such a pattern based authentication regime. A further example of such a pattern based authentication is provided in the form of a PICTORIAL LOGIN™ feature that is part of Microsoft Windows 8.